RATINGS: Saints 2-0 Arsenal: Szczesny Woeful But He Wasn’t Alone

By mac14 on January 1, 2015

Arsenal kicked off 2015 with a shambolic display of defending as Southampton ran out deserved 2-0 winners at St Mary’s this afternoon. These are my player ratings:

Szczesny – 4/10 – A complete liability. Caught in no mans land for the opener and made a shocking decision to try and kick a loose ball for the second, why not just pick it up?! He did make an excellent stop to deny Ward-Prowse but overall a day to forget.

Debuchy – 5/10 – Poor defending for the second goal as he should have cleared his lines, but made an excellent goal-line clearance kept it at 2-0.

Mertesacker – 4.5/10 – Should have got back on the line quicker for the opening goal. Was far too casual. All over the place at times.

Koscielny – 4.5/10 – Not himself today. Shouldn’t have left Mane for the opener, he should have kept the forward under pressure and allowed him to shoot. Sloppy backpass almost led to a third goal.

Gibbs – 5/10 – Not particularly at fault for any of the goals but played his part in a terrible defensive display.

Coquelin – 6/10 – Enjoyed a fine first half but was less influential after the break.

Chambers – 5/10 – Surprisingly started as a defensive midfielder and it’s safe to say the gamble didn’t work. He’s not used to the role, so it’s not his fault though.

The Ox – 6/10 – Showed his ability at times with some dangerous runs but no end product.

Cazorla – 6/10 – Missed a great chance to open the scoring but fired straight at Forster. Tricky at times but wasn’t his day.

Rosicky – 5/10 – Worked hard but failed to really have any positive influence on the game.

Alexis – 6/10 – Forced a stunning save from Forster early in the second half which would have drawn us level at 1-1. It was a key turning point in the game. Sanchez wasn’t at his best but was still easily our most dangerous player.

Subs:

Walcott – 5/10 – Barely touched the ball in the 25 minutes he was on the field.

Akpom N/A

So a terrible way to start the new year and I must admit it was worrying how poor we were at the back, especially as we had our first choice back-five out. Things can only get better against Hull on Sunday….